Papain family cysteine protease | |||||||||
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Identifiers | |||||||||
Symbol | Peptidase_C1 | ||||||||
Pfam | PF00112 | ||||||||
InterPro | IPR000668 | ||||||||
PROSITE | PDOC00126 | ||||||||
SCOP2 | 1aec / SCOPe / SUPFAM | ||||||||
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Papain, also known as papaya proteinase I, is a cysteine protease (EC 3.4.22.2) enzyme present in papaya (Carica papaya) and mountain papaya (Vasconcellea cundinamarcensis). It is the namesake member of the papain-like protease family.
It has wide ranging commercial applications in the leather, cosmetic, textiles, detergents, food and pharmaceutical industries. In the food industry, papain is used as an active ingredient in many commercial meat tenderizers.[1]